More than Lip Service:
Ucar's Environmental Stands Are Now Policy

From comprehensive recycling to a crosstown shuttle, UCAR has
supported a number of activities that take the environment into
account. Now these activities are backed up by an organizational
mandate. Policy 1-1-22 was added to the UCAR Policies and Procedures
Manual and distributed with a cover memo from UCAR president
Rick Anthes last 14 December.

The policy states that "UCAR is committed to protecting the
environment," and cites the goals of minimizing our waste stream,
promoting the reduction of single occupant vehicle travel, purchasing
energy-efficient and/or recycled products, and managing the facility
settings in environmentally responsible ways.

Members of the Environmental Stewardship Committee (ESC) are
savoring the policy's adoption. The ESC has worked long and hard to
see that environmentally sound decision-making is part of UCAR's
official outlook. Otherwise, it can be too easy to put the environment
after other concerns, particularly at those times when short-term pain
is needed to ensure long-term fiscal and ecological gain.

Among the practical consequences of the policy are

Those who purchase goods and services are expected to make
the most environmentally friendly choices, all else being equal.

Facility Support Services (FSS) will take environmental concerns
into consideration as it maintains and develops the UCAR
campuses.

The new policy was drafted by members of the in ESC in 1993 and went
through an exhaustive review process to ensure that the goals and
practices being mandated were realistic. Committee members from
Contracts, FSS, and Health, Environment, and Safety Services worked
with the rest of the ESC to craft the policy. "The policy seemed to be a
long time in the making," says the ESC's Joanne Dunnebecke, "but it
was important that senior management as well as all of the
departments that will be affected took part in writing and revising it."
Joanne gives special credit to Val Friesen (Finance and Administration)
for shepherding the draft through the policy and procedure approval
process that Val coordinates.

ESC members haven't been idle while waiting on the new policy to be
finalized. Over the past year the group's Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Program has stepped up efforts to increase recycling options and
awareness throughout UCAR. There are now around 50 local
coordinators, led by Gaylynn Potemkin, who spearhead recycling
publicity and logistics for their office areas. You may have noticed a
forest-green placard on the door of your own group's coordinator.

These coordinators proved invaluable when composting came to local
offices. After successful testing at ML, the program spread to nearly all
UCAR sites last summer under the coordination of Eron Brennan. All
groups at the Mesa and Foothills labs, UNAVCO, and UCAR North
have had the option of keeping compost bins to be picked up daily. At
first the compost went to a local farmer; from October through January
it was taken to a site managed by the city of Boulder as part of a city-run
experiment; now it's going to the Lost Antlers composting facility in
Golden. Meanwhile, the ML and FL cafeterias have been sending
remnants of meats, vegetables, fruits, and other items to the bears
housed at the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Center .

The mainstays of our recycling program--mixed office paper, cans,
bottles, and cardboard--continue to be picked up each day, with paper
retrieved from deskside bins in each office. (Call custodial services, ext.
1138, if you need a deskside bin.) Results of a recent waste audit (see
accompanying article) were heartening. Compared to a year ago, the
amount of recyclable material thrown into the trash had dropped by
more than 50%.

"Precycling" is another activity on the rise. By reducing the use of
paper in the first place, resource consumption is cut at the source. For
example, in moving to a weekly electronic format and a monthly print
format, Staff Notes has reduced its paper needs by around 75%, or about
400,000 sheets per year. Similarly, the Scientific Computing Division
has placed virtually all documentation on line and is working toward
the elimination of most of its paper documents. Uncertainties remain
in the amount of printing done on the receiving end and the amount
of power used by computers.

Still, the results of the waste audit prove that progress is possible and
that individual actions make a difference. With success evident on the
office scale, ESP members are hoping that the new UCAR policy brings
similar benefits on the scale of institutional actions that range from
purchasing to disposing.

"Adoption of this policy," says Joanne, "sends an important message to
UCAR staff and to the community. It says that this institution cares
not only about atmospheric research but also about the health of the
world in which we live." --BH